


Heart shaped

by blacktipshark



Category: Digimon - All Media Types, Digimon Adventure, Digimon Adventure tri.
Genre: F/M, Happy Ending, taiora - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-12
Updated: 2020-04-12
Packaged: 2021-03-02 02:54:01
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 7,416
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23607877
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/blacktipshark/pseuds/blacktipshark
Summary: It’s Sora’s birthday and Taichi is having doubts about his gift.
Relationships: Takenouchi Sora & Yagami Taichi | Tai Kamiya, Takenouchi Sora/Yagami Taichi | Tai Kamiya
Comments: 7
Kudos: 19





	Heart shaped

**Author's Note:**

> I get the feeling maybe this is kind of a cliché topic regarding Sora, but sincerely I don’t care.

From his desk at the back, Taichi looked at the clock on the wall at the front of the classroom. He had stopped paying attention to the lesson about half an hour ago.  
Head down, he checked his phone under the desk, and tapped the screen to one of his last emails

_“Mr. Yagami, we send you the attached photo of the item you ordered. If everything is in order you can pick it up and pay the rest of the sum.”_

He barely scanned the message this time and directly opened the attached photo to look at it for the thousandth time since he had received the email the day before.

He smiled proudly tapping his feet against the floor in excitement. He could barely contain it.

Looking at the back of Sora’s head sitting in front of him, his heart fluttered and he couldn’t wait till tomorrow night.

He felt so proud of himself

Sora’s birthday was tomorrow, and ever since they were no longer little kids, and their parents did their shopping instead of them, he had always screwed up her gifts. The whole conflict with the hairpin, the dress that had been too small and she had felt he was calling her fat, the pink bird doll he had bought because he thought it’d remind her of Piyomon, but whose eyes shined at night and it was just creepy, the surprise birthday cake he had once tried to make that had made her throw up. And don’t even make him start with the Christmas’s ones.

The only reason she had liked the one from last year was because Hikari had been the one that had actually bought it. And he was almost certain that Sora had known it.

He often told himself that the problem was that girls were hard to buy for. Mimi didn’t like anything anyone ever gave her and she always ended up exchanging them. Except for Koushiro, they’ve all given up with her and just hoped for the best. Meiko was so shy that even if she didn’t like them, he would never know. And Hikari just used to say at loud “you know what’d be reeaaally awesome…” to no one in particular when he was near her. He will not confirm nor deny that even then he had messed some of those up.

But Sora was different. He hated messing it up with hers, and he always tried so hard. Every year he dreamed of giving her something she’d really liked. He dreamed that his gift would be the one she’d liked the most, see her beam with happiness and smile just for him. But every year he fails miserably.

 _“Well, not this year”_ he thought with confidence.

The bell rang and they all started putting away their books and getting up.

“Hey” Sora said, approaching him

“Hey!”

Sora chuckled and looked at him funny.

“What?’”

“Since when trigonometry makes you so happy?”

“Uh?” He realized his fantasy had probably left him smiling like a moron, so he laughed “No, I was just...” he tried putting more of a straight face without looking weird. “Not thinking about it makes me happy”

“So…do you remember to come an hour earlier tomorrow?”

Sora had always preferred doing something simple for her birthdays, but this year Mimi wanted to be in charge, and of course she had gone a little over board. What in the begging was going to be just them, Jyou’s girlfriend and a few classmates, turned out in pretty much their entire classroom, some people from Yamato’s, and some from Mimi and Koushiro’s class.

He didn’t know how she had done it but Mimi had even convinced Sora’s mom to leave for the night. And then Koushiro had the idea of contacting their digimon friends, so they had all agreed on meeting earlier at her house to spend some time with them.

“Yup”

Taichi saw her looking at the last of their classmates leaving with a nervous expression. He knew she was anxious about having all those people over, it was not like her to enjoy being the center of attention.

“You know you can call it off if you’re uncomfortable, right?” he said.

Sora looked at him startled, like he had just read her thoughts.

“What? I can’t do that, it’s tomorrow”

“Just say you’re sick or something”

“Come on, they’ll know it’s an excuse” she said but then smirked “unless…I could say I ate another one of your cakes”

“Ha ha real funny” he mocked

He put his jacket and adjusted the backpack on his shoulder.

Sora smiled “I’m really happy that we get to see Piyomon and the others though” she said as they started walking through the hallway.

He smiled back “Yeah me too; I bought Agumon his favorite snacks”

Sora stared at him as he said that. She was smiling but there was something else there he couldn’t quite figure it out.

“I’m sure he’ll be really happy” she sighed, and started turning to the stairs “I need to go to see Mimi, so…see you tomorrow?”

“Yeah, of course! See ya” he waved at her, and stood there till she turned at the end of the hallway.

-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.

Taichi was next to Hikari on the school’s bike rack.

“Tell mom I’m gonna be a little late, I need to make a small detour” he said.

Hikari looked at him, having a feeling of what this “detour” was about. “Want me to come by? Help you pick something up?” she offered.

He smiled at her as he pulled out his bike

“No need”

Hikari watched him with mistrust, not convinced. “Are you sure? I’m positive she didn’t know it was actually me last year”

“I’m sure, already bought it actually”

“Uh? Really?” she said unlocking her bike “what did you buy her?”

But he just smiled at her as he climbed on the bike. “Tell mom to text me if she wants me to bring something along the way” And he pedaled away, thinking again _“This year she’ll like it”_

-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.

When he arrived at his building two hours later, plastic bags in his bike basket (his mom had indeed texted him to do some groceries), he stood for a moment after locking the bike. Before grabbing the bags and head to the apartment, he wanted to take advantage of this brief moment alone to take out the little black velvet box from his jacket pocket, and opened it to look at it again.

He had already seen it at the store when the owner had shown it to him, and the picture couldn’t hold a candle to the real thing.

She was going to love it, he was sure of it. He already wanted to see her face when he gave it to her. Maybe she would even hug him in thanks. His heart started beating faster just thinking about it.

He closed it, put it again in his pocket and grabbed the bags. The smile was still on his face when he climbed the stairs and opened the door to his home.

-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.

After dinner, Taichi was sitting on the floor cleaning his soccer shoes and Hikari was lying in bed going through some pictures on her camera, eyeing at her brother every now and then, but he took no notice. At the end she got fed up, and putting the camera aside, she sat leaning closer to him.

“Sooo, am I gonna have to beg, or are you going to show it to me??” she asked.

“Uh?”

“Your present, brother!” she said in a tantrum “I wanna see it! What did you get her?”

He stopped what he was doing and with a mischievously grin said “You really want to see it?” she nodded as he stood up and walked to his jacket on the hanger.

“Yes! Because if it sucks I still have tomorrow to fix it” she joked

“Hey!” he protested, stopping his hand from going inside his jacket.

“Nooo” she said rocking her body, “Show mee!”

He gave her a sly smile grabbing the box from the pocket and handed it to her

“Ooh, looks fancy” Hikari exclaimed grabbing it as she smiled. But her expression changed the instant she opened it.

Inside the box was a delicate silver necklace with a pendant shaped as Sora’s crest of love.

“Pretty cool, right?” he said proudly

Hikari said nothing, just looked at the necklace in awe.

“Two weeks ago I passed by this place and they had this heart pendant that was similar to her crest” he started explaining all excited as he went back to sitting on the floor “and they had this sign that said they also made them at custom, so I asked them if they could changed it. I was kinda worried at first because I had to draw it for them” he scratched his cheek in embarrassment “but then they send me the picture…” he finished with a hand gesture. “Come on admit it, it’d be her best present!” he said still smiling, although his sister lack of response was making him nervous. “It’s a great gift!...Isn’t it?”

Hikari blinked like coming out of a trance when she heard the worry on his tone. “Y-yes!” She stammered “It’s beautiful, brother” she half smiled, and closed the box leaving it on the bed. He was looking at her waiting for her to continue. “It’s just… I though you didn’t want to _tell_ her yet”

His face turned red “What does _that_ have to do with this?!”

“Well… jewelry it’s a very… _boyfriendly_ present”

Taichi leaned forward rapidly and took the box. “No it’s not!” he protested. But Hikari just looked at him without saying anything.

They stayed in silence for a full minute.

“So…you’re saying that if I give this to her, she’ll know…” he didn’t finish the sentence, but lowered the hand holding the box to his lap and stared at it, looking troubled.

Hikari felt guilty, he had been so excited… “B-but… maybe she won’t! I mean, it is what I said… but maybe she won’t know, you know? Maybe she’ll be distracted by the fact that you actually gave her something decent...” she laughed “More than decent actually” she admitted with a chuckle.

“Yeah…maybe she won’t” he said, not very convinced, in almost a whisper.

“Give it to her” she said, giving him a reassuring smile “she’ll love it, I promise”

-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.

All through the night he couldn’t stop thinking about what Hikari had said. He liked how things were going with Sora, more and more he could see as a real possibility that they could become something more, but at the same time… he couldn’t be sure. And he didn’t want to make any decisive move before being one hundred percent sure. The risk was just too big.

Her friendship was the one he treasured the most, and he didn’t want to make things awkward by confessing early, just to be turned down. If he even confesses at all. There still was the possibility that he had been misinterpreting the signs.

The looks, the subtle touches on his arm, her giggles at his (even bad) jokes, the fact that she seemed to find excuses to spend more time alone with him. And he was almost positive he saw her blush a few times.

But it could all still be a coincidence.

And he had misinterpreted them before. One heartbreak was more than enough.  
At least that time he had realized she liked someone else before he could say anything, so she never knew how he felt.

He was afraid of what her reaction would be if she turned him down. Would she still want to be friends with him? He guessed so, but it’d be awkward as hell. What if she decided to take some distance so to not hurt him? Or pity him? He didn’t know which of those last two was worse.

Finally things were going great, and now the present he had been so excited about was going to put all that into jeopardy. He tried telling himself that her sister was wrong, after all, she also wasn’t so experienced in dating. Maybe he was worrying for nothing.

He tried putting those doubts aside and go back to the fantasy where she thanked him with that warm and big smile of hers. But he was still thinking about it all through morning the next day.

After soccer practice that afternoon, he was in the middle of changing in the locker room with the rest of his teammates, when he realized this was where he could ask for a second opinion.

“So…” he started just loud enough to be heard by the ones changing near him, trying to sound as casual as possible “did you guys ever bought jewelry to a girl friend”

“Sure” said his goalkeeper, and Taichi was about to breath in relief, when that was followed by “I bought some earrings to my girlfriend last month”

“No, no girlfriend” he was already starting to regret this “I mean, a friend that is a girl”

“Oh” he said and thought for a second “then no.”

“Sure” another teammate said, and he felt hopeful again for a second.

“Yeah?”

“Yeah! I had this friend who I bought this bracelet to…”

“Had?” he asked, but some other guy he hadn’t realized was hearing them, interrupted him.

“Wait, are you talking about Kimiko? I thought you wanted to sleep with her”

“Well, yeah, but she was my friend before that” he said, laughing it off as if it wasn’t a big deal.

One after the other they started to join the conversation, and suddenly everyone around him was discussing about the best gifts to give to a girl if you wanted to win her over. Taichi sighed defeated.

 _“I’m doomed. What am I gonna do?”_ He thought, trying desperately to ignore the conversation around him.

He looked at the time on his phone, there were still a few hours left before he had to get ready for the party, he could go to the mall and buy something else. He finished changing quickly, said a brief goodbye to the rest of the team, and ran to where his bike was parked.

-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.

“Are you ready brother?!” Hikari called him from the living room. “We are gonna be late!”

“Yeah yeah coming” he said tying up his shoes in his room. From the corner of his eye he looked at the little box on his desk.

He hadn’t been able to find anything at the mall. Everything looked like garbage. He thought about looking at stores on the street when he remembered that they had arranged to meet an hour earlier. He cursed. There was no way he could make it. Considering he could actually find something. He had thought calling her sister for help, but he knew she would just try to convince him to give Sora the necklace anyway, and that was a conversation he didn’t want to have again.

He stood up. He didn’t know what to do and there was no time to do anything. He felt anxious, opening and closing his hands at his sides. The little box seemed to be watching him rather that the other way around. 

Taichi took a deep breath and held it, closing his eyes, and clenching his fists.

 _“Come on, leave it, it’s late, just go”_ his brain screamed, and gave a few steps towards the door. _“Just leave it”_

He sighed heavily “Fuck”, and quickly grabbed the box before exit the room.

The walk to Sora’s apartment was quiet. Hikari could see he was too caught up in his head, and left him be. There was nothing she could say that she hadn’t said already, and she knew repeating herself would just annoyed him right now. Either way, the situation worried her too; she wanted this night to end well.

Jyou and his girlfriend were already there when they arrived, same as Yamato and Takeru. Taichi could see over the counter some new items, next to wrinkled gift wrap. Clearly the two books were a gift from Jyou, and he assumed the mug was from Takeru. Yamato’s gift had been one of the first few copies of his band’s single that had come out a week ago. He felt anxiety start to creep on him, but as the door wasn’t even close yet, Mimi and Koushiro arrived just right after them.

Luckily for him, because as soon as Koushiro arrived, any pre existent or future conversation that could be generated was replaced by everybody’s excitement over him contacting their digimon friends. They all followed him to where he sat down on the couch and pulled out his laptop.

“Okay guys, calm down” said the red haired. Which only earned him more effusive talk all around him, part in true excitement; part in just to annoy him.

As soon as he opened it, their digimons were all already there; faces pressed on the screen, and pushing each other to get out. One by one they started coming out, and hugging their respected partner.  
From then on it was all merry noise, between talks, laughs and food sharing. And for almost an hour Taichi forgot everything about his dilemma.

“Uhm guys” Koushiro said looking at his watch “it’s almost time”

“Sora Sora” Piyomon started approaching her partner “Here” she said extending something to her.

“Uh?” Sora grabbed the little shell “What..?”

“It’s your gift! Isn’t that what humans do?” she asked, and Sora smiled feeling moved at her digimon wanting to attend to human customs.

“Thanks, Piyomon”

“Oh crap! I totally forgot!” yelled Mimi, bringing both hands to her face. She stood up and went to where her purse was, and brought the bags that were around it.

“Here” Mimi said smiling; pushing the bags on her friend as she sat down.

“That’s mine actually” Koushiro timidly said behind Mimi, pointing at one of the bags.

“Yes, I told him what to buy” Mimi stated looking more proud that what the situation required.

Taichi clenched his fist on his knees as he felt that shadow of anxiety creeping on him again.  
From the corner of his eye he saw Hikari subtly looking at him, and that only made him more nervous.

At least the others had already given her their presents, so it wasn’t like this was a round of presents, plus he was sure Hikari was staying quiet about hers so as to no direct the attention to them. And, as Koushiro said, it was almost time for the other people to start arriving. Everyone would be more distracted once that happened, so there still was a possibility that he could come out of this situation without embarrassing himself. He could give her something else another day, said he had forgoten to give it to her with all the fuss of the party.

“Taichi, what did you get her?”

Agumon asked him loudly, startling him, and now all eyes were on him.

“Uh…” he swallowed. Maybe it was just his imagination, but for some reason now everybody seemed quiet and to be focused only on him. Sora looked at him curious and he felt a pang in his chest. Even after all these years of awful gifts, she still looked at him with genuine interest. “I…uh” the little box inside the pocket of his jacket felt like it weighted ten times more. _“Damn it damn it”,_ maybe if everybody wasn’t looking at him, maybe if they were alone… maybe if they _really_ were together…But they weren’t.

He could see himself in his mind eye just grabbing the box and giving it to her. At least Hikari was not looking at him anymore. _“_ You know…funny thing” he tried laughing, at the same time he repressed the itching in his hand to go inside his pocket. “I kind of…forgot” he finished, trying to look at nothing in particular to avoid their gazes, especially hers.

“Whaaat?!” Mimi yelled at him “What do you mean you _forgot_?” She reproached him, putting both hands on her hips.  
And he heard Jyou making a comment to his girlfriend about how his friend should be more organized, and that maybe he would gift him with a calendar.

But Sora gazing down saying nothing was the worst. She looked sad and disappointed, and he felt awful.

This was worse than all the times he had screwed it up combined.

“I was kind of hoping to see what disaster it will be this yea-” Takeru joked quietly and Hikari elbowed him on the side.

“I mean, you could at least have given her something awful. It’s Sora!” Mimi continued, gesturing towards her friend.

And he wanted to scream at her, telling her that, yes, he was very much aware that this was _Sora_ they were talking about. That she was special, the girl that was always putting everyone’s problems and happiness ahead of her own. And that he appreciated her more than he could ever put into words. And that that was why he had always felt so bad when every year his gifts suck. And that’s why he was so happy with what he had bought her, because he could finally give her something worthy of her. But now he couldn’t do it to because it could ruin how things were between them.  
But he couldn’t say any of these things in front of them. He wanted to crawl into a hole.

“It’s okay Mimi” Sora said, calming her friend. “I’m sure Taichi will make it up to me, won’t he?” she said in a fake menacing tone trying to make a joke in threatening him, be he could see she was unhappy.

He didn’t deserve her.

This was so wrong. If given it to her might ruin things, it seemed not doing it may just destroy them. _“Fuck this, to hell if they find out”_ He thought as he was about to reach inside his pocket and opening his mouth to call her, when the doorbell rang.

They all froze, there were people already outside the apartment and the digimons were still there. 

“Everybody, go inside the laptop, now!” Koushiro ordered them.

“But we want to keep eating!” Patamon said from Takeru’s arms

“Yeah! We didn’t finish” complained Gomamon

“Come on you guys! That was the deal” Jyou protested

“Can’t we finish eating in Sora’s room?” Tailmon proposed “We’ll take the laptop and go inside then”

They all exchanged glances. The doorbell rang again

“Yes, yes, okay just go”, decided Yamato. “Just do it quick”.

All their digimons cheered in joy.

“We’ll pretend to be stuffed animals if someone comes in”

As they were grabbing snacks from the table and carrying them to the room, Agumon approached Taichi, tugging at his sleeve.

“Did I say something wrong, Taichi?” he asked worried “You look sad”

Taichi knelt by his side. “No, don’t worry about it” he gave him a reassuring smile “it was my fault”

Once they were out of sight Sora opened the door, letting the first lot of people in.  
The apartment became full in no time, about every fifteen minutes the doorbell rang and more people showed up.

Sora didn’t talk to him during the party. From the moment the first group showed up she avoided him. He felt uncomfortable, but he understood why she was doing it, and didn’t make an attempt to approach her either.

At some point she passed near him and he saw she was wearing the hairpin. He hadn’t noticed it before by being so nervous. He smiled without realizing, she actually wears the things he gave her. _“She could be wearing the necklace right now”._ Taichi couldn’t concentrate on the conversation he was having with three of his classmates anymore after that. He excused himself, not sure of where to go or do. He saw the balcony was rather empty given the cold, so he went outside.

There were only two people in the other corner, and the glass window muffled the sounds from inside, so he was basically alone. He sat down on the bench and took a deep breath, inhaling the cold night air.

After a few moments of looking at the sky at nothing in particular, he took the box from his pocket and played with it with his hands. Maybe he could still give it to her today, although then he would have to explain why he had lied before. Explain why he hadn’t been able to give it to her in front of everybody… He had upset her, he wouldn’t be able to get away with it without given her an explanation for his actions. He would need to think on what to say, that was, if she even agreed to listen to him tonight.…

“I knew you were lying”

Startled, Taichi hid the box on instinct back in his pocket. He had been so absorbed in his thoughts he hadn't notice that Yamato had entered the balcony.

“I-I don’t know what you are talking about”

“As if there was a chance that you had forgotten” Yamato said and sat next to him, but Taichi stayed quiet. Yamato nodded toward his friend’s pocket “What is it?” he asked calmly.

“It’s nothing”

“Come on, it can’t be more hideous than that creepy bird doll you gave her two years ago” he said with a smile trying to encourage him.

“It’s not…hideous” he looked briefly at Yamato, who was just staring back at him. Taichi realized there was no other way around this, and looking straight at the balcony’s view, to avoid Yamato’s gaze, he took the box out of his pocket and placed it on the bench between them.

Yamato took it, opened it, and just stared at its content blinking.

“This is amazing, why didn’t you give it to her?”

Taichi shifted uncomfortable “I didn’t think it through when I bought it…”he looked at Yamato, hoping that was enough information for his friend to understand the situation, but when Yamato didn’t respond, he continued “it’s not the kind of present a…. _friend_ gives”

Yamato scoffed “Come on, you guys practically are-

“We are not” he cut him off “I mean, sometimes I think we could be but…” he said, absently playing with his fingers “I can’t make rash assumptions, or actions about this… it could ruin everything”

“You’re thinking too much into it, she could just think it’s a great gift and that’s that”. Yamato was trying to down play it to encourage him, the same approach Hikari had had, and Taichi couldn’t help but smile. He knew they wanted to help.

“But even if _she_ doesn’t see any other meaning to it, someone else would. Mimi certainly would”. He could actually picture it: Mimi squealing and saying how Sora was the only who got those kinds of presents from him, and asking if “is she a _special_ friend??”

Yamato didn’t say anything, but he could picture it too. He looked at Taichi as he left the box on the bench again. He sighed “So you’d rather she be sad thinking that her best friend forgot about her birthday”

Taichi bit his lip, he knew his friend was right, she had indeed looked so sad that he had almost given it to her in front of everybody, and exposed himself like the pining idiot that he was.

“You should just give it to her, otherwise it’d be a waste of a wonderful gift, but hey, that’s just my opinion” He said, and left after Taichi didn’t say anything.

When the balcony became more crowded he went back inside again. He was talking to some of his classmates in the kitchen, when Sora was about to enter and stopped the moment she saw him. She averted her gaze, uncomfortable, and went back the way she came. Taichi felt his insides twist, up until now it had been just the subtle ignoring, and avoid talking to him. This was a disgust that literally meant “I don’t want to be in the same room as you”. That did it for him, and he made a decision.

-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.

Sora wished she could be having fun. She was hurt. Yes, his presents had always sucked, and when she was younger sometimes they had made her mad. But she grew to appreciate them mainly for the effort he always put into them, trying to find something she would like, and she really liked that about him. Sometimes, and especially on her birthdays Sora always remembers to wear the hairpin he once gave her to show him she values what he gives her. She wasn’t sure he noticed, but she did it anyway just in case.

Plus, things were happening between them, weren’t they? At least up until today that was what she had thought. Maybe she had been misinterpreting the signs.

Either way she tried to enjoy the party, made conversation with her friends, whilst obliging herself to not think about him for the rest of the night. Overall she managed to make a good job of it, except for the brief glances she instinctively gave him every time she heard his voice nearby.  
At first it was rather easy; there were so many people that she could elude him with little effort. For the first time she was happy Mimi had invited so many people over. But near the end of the party it became harder as people started to leave, and not only could she see him and hear him, but there were fewer people to talk to and distract herself.

“Want me to stay and talk crap about him?” Mimi asked, approaching from nowhere, startling her. Her friend had just caught her staring at him.

“Mimi, don’t be like that” Meiko tried to appease “We could help you clean though”

Mimi was pissed off too. She was the one Sora had being confiding to about her feelings and misgivings. She was the one encouraging Sora and telling her Taichi liked her back. Mimi also ignored him during the party. A part of her wished she could get mad like that, for sure it’d be more cathartic. She guessed that was why Mimi got mad in her behalf.

“What do you mean “don’t be like that”? He sucks. I mean the nerve on that guy, just when we thought he was boyfriend material-

“It’s okay” Sora interrupted them. She appreciated their gesture, but she didn’t feel like talking about this right now. “I think I prefer being alone”

“Want me to punch him? I’ll do it” Mimi said, simulating a punch.

Sora smiled despite herself. “I just don’t want to think about this right now. Can we do this tomorrow?”

Mimi snorted, resigned “Finee” and grabbed Meiko’s hand “Come on, Koushiro and I will accompany you home”

The eight of them were the last ones to leave, and her goodbye to Taichi was awkward as hell. It was the only time she got to “talk” to him since he had first arrived with Hikari. She didn’t know what to say and he started mumbling something when Jyou interrupted him to ask for his pen back.

“Why did you take my pen to the bathroom?”

“What?” Taichi looked at him annoyed “No, I didn’t”

“But I saw you going that wa-

Sora took advantage of his interruption to move on on her regards.

Hikari was the last one, and when they were by the door she took out a gift from her purse.

“I hope you like it” she said with a smile.

Sora opened it. It was a framed picture of her and Piyomon at their last summer vacation. They were sitting on a bench by the beach, Hikari had taken the photo.

“I love it, thanks” she said smiling and hugged her. Although she couldn’t ignore the fact that they were both aware that Hikari had waited till Taichi was already outside to give her her present.

She waved them from upstairs, closed the door, and just stood there a few seconds, letting the silence of her now empty apartment sink in. She turned to look at it, cups everywhere, napkins on the floor, empty food bowls on the table and counter, plus at some time she had heard something break, so she should probably see what that was. She didn’t feel like cleaning really, but she didn’t want to wake up to this mess either. Worse yet, if her mom came home before she could get up and clean. _“Better just be done with it”_ she thought as she started to gather the empty cups.

She cleaned for almost an hour on autopilot, putting things in garbage bags, sweeping the floor, cleaning the few glasses, rearranging chairs…

Sora was disappointed. They had talked about her birthday _yesterday_ , how could he have forgotten? She thought as she went over a last round of sweeping the floor.

 _“Maybe he did it on purpose”_ , that awful part of her mind that made her feel unloved wondered. Maybe Taichi had realized that she wanted something more to happen between them and didn’t like it, so maybe this “forgetting” was so she wouldn’t have any ideas about them being a couple.

Sora shook her head _“Come on, that’s ridiculous, he’d never do something like that”_

But then what was it? She rearranged the cushions rather violently. Now that she was alone, she allowed herself some space to get angry. She was mad at him, and also at herself.

She knew he was giving her space at not approaching her during the party, and she knew she didn’t want to talk to him even if he did. But it bothered her that he hadn’t even _tried._ She knew she was not making any sense.

Maybe she had exaggerated on not entering the kitchen just because he was in it. He had looked so pained at her reaction, and she hated herself for taking pleasure in seeing him like that. This was so unlike herself.

 _“But he_ should _feel bad, shouldn’t he?”_

She just wanted to go to sleep and not think about this anymore.

The moment Sora opened the door to her room something jumped at her.

“Sora Sora” said Piyomon, who came out flying from under the pile of pillows.

“Piyomon!” Sora cried out surprised “What are you doing here?”

“I wanted to stay and be with Sora!” she said hugging her partner.

Sora hugged her back and smiled despite herself, “Koushiro is gonna be mad” she said, but the truth was that Piyomon’s presence was a blessing right now.

Piyomon listened intently as Sora told her about the party. She left out the uncomfortable parts though.

“…and Hikari gave me a lovely picture of us” she told her as she went to the mirror on her dresser to remove her makeup.

Face all cleaned she looked at herself in the mirror, and felt her chest tighten as she removed the hairpin.

Sora knew it was unreasonable to be this upset about a present. Or lack of it. He could have given her a simple key chain, or just bought her a bar of chocolate on his way here, but he did _nothing_. And he had always tried, that was what upset her the most, him looking expectant, waiting to see her reaction when she unwrapped his gifts, to see if he had gotten it right this time. It made her feel special; he didn’t put that effort with the others. And today he had just _forgotten_? And not only that, but he had tried not to make a big deal out of it.

She was afraid something had changed in their relationship and she hadn’t realized. She was scared that for some reason she was becoming less important to him.

Still in front of the mirror she started getting undressed, and after she put her pajama top, she noticed something different on the desk behind her. She turned around, that little black box wasn’t there before. _“Uh?”_

She walked, half dressed, towards it. There was a little note under it. She realized it was written in one of the napkins. _“Happy birthday”_ was all it said.

“Taichi left that”

Sora turned to look at her digimon, startled, “What?”

Now that she looked better at it, it did look like Taichi’s handwriting. And hadn’t Jyou said something to him about a pen?

“He came in the room, I was pretending to be a stuffed animal because I didn’t know who it was at first, and it was dark so I guess he didn’t see me either” Piyomon explained.

So he had bought her something after all? Sora felt confused.

She left the note, grabbed the box, and when she opened it her breath stopped.

One of her hands went to her mouth, she was speechless. _“This is…_. _Did Taichi really buy me this?”_ She walked to her bed needing to sit down.

“What is it, what is it Sora?” Piyomon asked approaching her, as Sora took the necklace out of the box. “That’s your crest!” yelled Piyomon excited.

Sora was still baffled, but she managed a smile. It was beautiful. She couldn’t believe he had actually gotten her this.

She felt special again. “ _So he really does like me_ ”, her chest swelled. It seemed there was still hope for them to become something else...

She wished he would have given it to her in person. Although now she thought she could understand why he hadn’t. It’d be rather telling giving her something like this in front of the whole group. Mimi would have squeal.

She still felt somewhat sad though.

“Put it on, put it on!” Piyomon insisted.

Sora smiled at her, walked in front of the mirror and put it on. She loved it. Not only was it beautiful, but the feeling of wearing something he gave her… felt _intimate._ Unlike the hairpin, she wouldn’t be taking this at the end of the day, she was going to sleep with it, shower with it… Her heart fluttered.

“Sora you look so pretty!!” Piyomon flied next to her

Sora touched the pendant, feeling kind of embarrassed.

There was a part of her that wanted to take a picture of it and brag about it to Mimi. But another, more intense part, wanted to keep it a secret for a little longer. She didn’t want to share this yet.

She felt like such a little girl, and was glad that no one besides Piyomon was there to see her face right now.

She turned off the light and grabbed her cell phone while lying down on the bed. Piyomon was by her side, and rapidly fell asleep. Sora tapped the screen of her cell phone to their last conversation. She wanted to thank him, but a text felt so impersonal… She was thinking what she could say when saw the little “online” sign under his name. _“Is he awake? What time is it?”_ Almost two hours had passed, and he was still awake. She felt a pang of guilt at having making him feel uncomfortable now.

She didn’t want to send him a text, but she also didn’t want to leave it till morning. What if he thought she hadn’t seen the box?

Her hand absently went to the pendant to touch it. She wanted him to see that she was wearing it, so she took a picture, but when she looked at it realized that even though the pendant was visibly there, it pretty much looked like a picture of her breasts. Blushing profusely, she deleted the picture and discarded that idea. Besides, a picture felt impersonal too. She wanted to talk to him, so she risked it and texted him “are you up?” whilst feeling dumb, he had been online _just_ a second ago.

The text was marked as “seen” immediately but the two minutes he took to answer her seemed to drag on forever. He typed and deleted a few times before deciding on just “yeah”

Sora realized she didn’t know how to follow it, and thought again about sending a photo. “can I call you?” she sent almost without thinking.

“give me a minute.” Another two minutes that felt longer than what they were passed, and Sora felt her heart on her throat. “okay”, he sent her.

She quickly got out of bed, careful not to wake Piyomon up, and sat down on the living room’s sofa with a blanket. Her hands were shaking as she grabbed the phone and called him.

“Hi” he said

“Hi” she said more timidly than she’d like, realizing again that she didn’t know what to say to him, so she just said “thank you for the gift”

“Uh…you’re welcome”

There was a rather awkward silence after that. Sora wondered if he would ask her how she knew it was from him.

“I’m wearing it” she told him, touching it.

“Yeah?” she could hear some excitement in his voice now, and chuckled.

“Yeah. I really like it.”

She heard him smile “I’m glad”. He sneezed “I should have brought a sweater” he said more to himself

“Where are you?” she asked curious.

“Balcony. Didn’t want to talk inside in case someone woke up.”

“I would have liked it if you’d have given it to me in person.”

After a brief pause he said “Me too”

“I still feel a little bad, you know.” She admitted, although now she knew it’d pass.

“I know, I’m sorry” he said solemnly. And after a brief pause he added, on a lighter tone, “If it makes you feel any better, Mimi stepped me on my foot on the way out. She was wearing heels, it hurt”

Sora chuckled “It does help a little”

The smile stayed on her face and she felt a sudden urge to hug him.

Not being face to face made her feel braver, Sora realized. She was glad she had called him, the safety of being over the phone made her more comfortable, and she dared to ask what she would otherwise probably feel embarrassed.

“Would you have given it to me in person if it was just the two of us?” she asked, heart racing.

“Yes. I…” he seemed to consider his next words so she didn’t interrupt him “I was really excited about giving it to you actually…and I would have preferred it that way, I like it better…when it’s just us.”

She felt all giddy. Apparently she was not the only one taking advantage of the fact that they weren’t face to face.

“Uh... uhm I mean” he mumbled to continue when she didn’t respond, and she realized he had just confessed to like being alone with her and she hadn’t said anything back.

“M-me too!” she hurried to say and came out louder than intended. “I like being alone with you” said softer.

She heard him exhaled in relief, and her face was starting to hurt from smiling.

“Then we should do it more often...” he said, with more confidence “just you and me…”

It moved her heart how they were both tiptoeing around the issue without actually referring to it, trying to be clear enough for the other to take the hint, but without actually say the actual words yet. But she realized she preferred it this way. Some things shouldn’t be said for the first time over the phone.

“I’d really like that”

She heard him murmur _“yes!”_ far away -clearly not meant to be heard-, and she wanted to squeal. “Great” he said more calmly and sneezed again.

“You should go back inside or you’ll catch a cold. We’ll talk tomorrow”

“I’m fine, I don’t...” but he thought better of it and just repeated “I’m fine” but she knew what he had almost said, because she was thinking it too “ _I don’t want to hang up either”_. She almost said it, but enough confessions for one night, this was already a lot to process. She figured sleep wouldn’t come easy tonight.

“If you get sick we won’t be able to hang out”

He chuckled “You’re right, talk you tomorrow then?”

“Yup”

“Goodnight Sora”

“Goodnight, and Taichi?... This is the best gift someone has ever given me”

**Author's Note:**

> Hope you guys liked it!  
> If you did, comments are always welcome and appreciated, as are kudos if you’re feeling lazy haha.
> 
> As I'm sure you probably figured out, english is not my native language, so I apologize for any errors you may found. (and if you happen to find a really gross one, please tell me so I can edit it?)


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